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Posted on 04/11/2003 8:55:03 PM PDT by AFA-Michigan
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force calls them 'prohibitively expensive'
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A leading homosexual activist group has cut in half domestic partner benefits for its employees’ lovers.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is working to force corporations to adopt such benefits for its homosexual employees, reportedly said that the costs were "prohibitively expensive."
The homosexual newspaper Washington Blade reported that the Task Force slashed partner benefits in half, following a plea by its outgoing executive director, Lorri Jean, that the lovers' benefits were too expensive to maintain during a budget crunch.
One of the key arguments used by NGLTF and other homosexual pressure groups is that extension of marital benefits to homosexuals will not cost companies much money.
"Based on its own experience, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been knowingly dishonest in public about the increased cost to employers of extending insurance coverage to individuals whose homosexual activity puts them at dramatically higher risk of domestic violence, mental illness, substance abuse, life-threatening disease, and premature death," said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan.
"In public, homosexual activists arrogantly and deceitfully dismiss concerns by other employers about the costs of so-called 'domestic partner' benefits," Glenn said. "But in private, when faced with the reality that practicing what they preach was threatening their own salaries and lobbying budget, these very same homosexual activists cut same-sex benefits for their own employees."
Glenn said NGLTF officials' "glaring hypocrisy" — revealed March 7 in a lead story by the Blade — will be extremely helpful in his and other pro-family groups' efforts to oppose the adoption of so-called "domestic partner" benefits by private employers and state and local governments.
"NGLTF Director Lorri Jean's admission that same-sex benefits for her own employees were 'prohibitively expensive' is now Exhibit A in the case we'll make to employers concerned about the rising cost of health care," he said.
NGLTF's private position on so-called "domestic partner" benefits was reported by The Blade, as follows:
"Lorri Jean's first crisis at the Task Force surfaced several months after she took office (in 2001), sources said, when the NGLTF's unionized staff threatened to go public with a dispute over domestic partner benefits. During contract negotiations, Jean called for dropping a longstanding NGLTF policy of paying 100 percent of the health insurance premium for staff members' domestic partners, saying the benefit was prohibitively expensive. She had no objections to the existing policy of paying 100 percent of the health insurance premiums for employees themselves. But a 100 percent benefit plan for domestic partners could not be sustained, Jean said, at a time when the group had a $500,000 debt, including an outstanding loan of $300,000."
The Blade account continues:
"Following a heated staff meeting, the [Task Force] staff's union members voted to back down from the 100 percent partner benefit demand, settling instead for a 50 percent payment plan for partners of staff members."
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What the Task Force tells corporations
NGLTF's public position on so-called "domestic partner" benefits is published on the NGLTF website, as follows:
"It Will Cost Too Much. The most common reason cited by companies who do not implement DP benefits is the perception that to do so would be cost prohibitive. ... [T]hese concerns are baseless. ...If a company cares about its employees and about the values of fairness and nondiscrimination, it should treat all employees equitably, no matter the price tag."
Glenn said it is NGLTF's private rather than its public position on the issue that reflects the economic realities of adding to an employer's "insurance pool" new individuals whose homosexual lifestyle makes them more likely to be disproportionate consumers of healthcare services, thus driving up premium costs for the pool of employees as a whole.
In a “White Paper” on domestic partner costs, The Corporate Resource Council, a nonprofit consulting firm affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, reports that "executives at many companies can expect that the cost of health care for domestic partners will be higher — and perhaps significantly higher — than for married couples. One bit of evidence comes from a small group plan in California that paid 17.1 percent more last year for same-sex couples than for opposite-sex couples."
"Taking high-risk enrollees and same-sex medical costs into account, some employers can expect 3 to 5 percent higher costs if only 1 or 2 percent of their employees choose domestic partner benefits," the council said.
AFA-Michigan’s Glenn cited numerous medical and other studies that document the disproportionate health care consequences associated with homosexual behavior:
Domestic Violence
"It is likely the incidence of domestic violence among gay men is nearly double that in the heterosexual population. As many as 650,000 gay men may be victims of domestic violence each year." (p. 14) The researchers estimate that battery occurs in 50 percent of gay male couples (p. 12). (Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them, by David Island and Patrick Letellier, co-editors of the National Lesbian & Gay Domestic Violence Network newsletter)
"One in five urban gay men is battered by his partner, a new study by Georgetown University's School of Nursing and Health Studies shows." (homosexual activist website 365gay.com, January 29, 2003)
Mental Illness
"(P)eople with same-sex sexual behavior are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders." (Journal of the American Medical Association report: Archives of General Psychiatry, 2001, based on the “Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study”).
Life-Threatening Disease and Substance Abuse
Compared to heterosexual men, men who engage in homosexual behavior are at increased risk of HIV infection, hepatitis, HPV and all other STDs, anal, prostate and colon cancers, eating disorders, depression and anxiety, and use alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs more often. (Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Web report issued last year)
"Homosexual men are at significantly increased risk of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, anal cancer, gonorrhea and gastrointestinal infections as a result of their sexual practices. ...Women who have sex with women are at significantly increased risk of bacterial vaginosis, breast cancer and ovarian cancer than are heterosexual women." (Executive Summary, "Health Implications Associated with Homosexuality," 1999, by Medical Institute of Sexual Health; contact MISH through its website or call (800)892-9484 to request a copy of the report.)
Premature Death
"[L]ife expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality were to continue, we estimate that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged 20 years will not reach their 65th birthday." (Source:International Journal of Epidemiology, Oxford University)
"Among young gay and bisexual men in Vancouver, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced life expectancy by up to 20 years." (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Pretty funny that a gay group has to admit this.
Homosexual marriage is a sham.
Say you're married, sign up for the monetary benefits and continue your promiscuous, deadly lifestyle.
This is more reality setting in than a "budget crunch".
More likely they found out that inherent with the queer lifestyle is the rampant disease that needs constant medication and treatment (AIDS, STDs, hemmorhoids, etc.).
Such a destructive way of life.
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